Miscellaneous spiritual, aesthetic, cultural, and political explorations by a world citizen

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

NSFW

Most words fail me. [The obscenities will come through. After all, the topic is a vast obscenity.]

What is it with 2010? Is this? "THE YEAR OF TRYING TO OUT-BIGOT ALL THE OTHER ASSHOLES"?

Granted, I have never had any use for the American Family Association, a bunch of christianist fear mongers raising lots of money off the anxieties of people they regularly stir up. Whatever position they take on anything, the odds are excellent that I will hold the opposite, as I have no use for heterosexist dominionists.

But really, folks, the levels of ignorance, fear, intolerance, hatred - and let's call it by its name - bigotry that has risen like a gigantic shitstorm over the proposed building of an Islamic center in New York leaves one whomperjawed.

Folks who gain power or make money on other people's fears have entered some dark pact and conjured up a dark, mindless, slavering being that threatens to take over the land. Sweet church-going people are being led to fall down before the beast (whose name is IGNORANCE and BIGOTRY, let the reader understand).

I'm gonna name it: it's fucking satanic.

Get a grip, people! If you know that little about another major religion of the world you need to shut up and educate yourself.

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the American Family Association, wrote a blog post yesterday on the AFA's site arguing that the United States should have "no more mosques, period."

"This is for one simple reason," he writes. "Each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government."

How's this little tidbit?

If a mosque was willing to publicly renounce the Koran and its 109 verses that call for the death of infidels, renounce Allah and his messenger Mohammed, publicly condemn Osama bin Laden, Hamas, and Abdelbaset al Megrahi (the Lockerbie bomber), maybe then they could be allowed to build their buildings. But then they wouldn't be Muslims at that point, now would they?

What if a church had to renounce the Bible and all the verses that call for the death of infidels, renounced G-d and his son Jesus, condemned the crusades of every era and their leaders (including all the religiously motivated Christian terrorists of our day) before being granted building permits? Hmm?

Am I hearing crickets now?

People like this are why Anne Rice felt she couldn't follow Christ without renouncing Christianity.

This is not something that arose spontaneously.

The Times report, however, descends into a kind of "liberal" media known-nothingism when it comes to how this became a controversy, suggesting that " a combination of arguable naïveté, public-relations missteps and a national political climate in which perhaps no preparation could have headed off controversy." This is a remarkable formula that manages to place the blame everywhere except where it belongs -- on a right-wing smear machine that went into overdrive in an effort to portray Rauf and Khan as terrorist sympathizers, an experience no one outside of contemporary partisan politics could have possibly been prepared for. The conservative media lied about the location of the project, they lied about Rauf's background, they lied about the project's funding, they lied about when the project would be built, and they lied about Rauf's political beliefs. And it would have been one thing if it had just been a small group of people lying, but they had an entire cable news station to lie for them, and politicians who were willing to amplify their smears. This controversy isn't about the "political climate." It's the fruit of a conscious, deliberate, and sustained effort. [Crooks and Liars]

Normally I would think we could ride out this latest wave of nativism and racism, but there are two factors that make it more dangerous than usual. The first, of course, is the economy which looks like it's not going to recover smartly thus giving this impulse more oxygen than it might otherwise have. The second is that the right wing demagogues have an entire industry now devoted to creating and nurturing these wedge issues for political and financial gain. The culture warriors have just shifted their strategy away from "family values" to their other stand-by, "stop the boogeyman." It's all part of the same throwback tapestry, but different times require difference emphasis. We're officially in the "the foreigners and blacks are ruining everything" portion of the show.

At least one cretin on the right have suggested building a gay bar next to the center to freak out the Muslims. It is to laugh.

If you look at this picture, and you’re not too stupid to breathe (sorry, wingnuts!), you should immediately see two things that make this whole “let’s put a gay bar by the Cordoba House and see liberal heads explode!” wishful thinking look even stupider than it is on its surface: 1) There are three gay bars within .1 mile of the Cordoba House and 2) They are all as close or closer to the Cordoba House than the WTC is. [Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon]

Furthermore, you might want to check out what Maha has to share with us:

Someone here had said that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the main guy behind the Cordoba House Islamic center, is a Sufi. This is a detail I have yet to see in a news story, but I can confirm it is true. He is the imam of a Sufi mosque in lower Manhattan, about ten blocks north of the proposed Cordoba House site.

Thus, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. I can say this because there is no way the Muslim Brotherhood, or al Qaeda, or the Taliban, or any other organization dedicated to enforcing dogmatic Sunni Islam would have anything to do with a Sufi. In fact, Sufis in the Middle East have suffered terribly from attacks by Sunni terrorists.

[snip]

Sufism is mystical Islam. Dogmatists don’t get mysticism. This is true of the dogmatists of all religions. It is often the case that mystics from different traditions understand each other better than the dogmatists of the same tradition.

The idea that all Muslims are somehow part of the same conspiracy is absurd enough, but to put Sufis in the same boat as jihadist is just plain ignorance.

The endless stream of deliberate lies and misinformation filtered through blind passion makes one feel that an immense pustule has been burst and we are drowning in a flood of sanguinopurulent hatred. [Yes, I've been waiting for decades to use the word "sanguinopurulent" in a sentence.]

And before you denounce the small minority of hate mongers in Islam you really should look to your own house and denounce the hate mongers in Christianity. I mean, really. Way overdue.

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The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the blogger and do not represent the positions of any group or organization with which he may be affiliated. As one who spent decades stuffing down his opinions and emotions, I am inclined to cut loose here, which I believe is healthy, honest, and part of the process of sanctification in the long run. Politics and spirituality mingle freely here, along with theatre reviews, photography, and passionate talk about food, literature, and the human journey. If anything written here offends you, please find other blogs to read. I am here to share, not to do battle.